Should Cell Phones be Allowed in Classrooms? Most Parents Say Yes

A national survey conducted on the role of technology in education – comprised of 30,000 students from over 6,500 private and public schools – has just been released, and (surprise, surprise!) students really wish they could use their phones in class.

The full Speak Up report, titled “The New 3 E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged and Empowered – How Today’s Students are Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Learning,” is part of an initiative investigating how students, educators and parents see technology (cell phones, laptops, eReaders, etc.) shaping the future of education. Some of the results are startling. Others? Not so much.

Some key bits:

For high schoolers, 61% indicated they owned cell phones, though 53% of schools ban them outright.

74% of those students say they would likely use their phones to check grades, 68% say they would take class notes, and 44% would use them for digital textbooks. (Which I can get behind, because books are heavy.)

High schoolers aren’t the only ones: 67% of parents say they would buy their student a phone for school work — if phones were allowed.

71% of high school students said that lifting Firewalls and strict filters would be the absolute best way to enhance their learning experience.

20% of kids from kindergarten to second grade own cell phones. (I had pogs.)